Synopsis
Following the death of a loved one, the American poet Barbara Crooker wrote, “How can we go on/knowing the end of the story?”
The American composer Dale Trumbore attempted to answer that question with her haunting choral work entitled “How to Go on,” given its premiere performance on today’s date in 2016 in Anaheim, California by the Choral Arts Initiative.
Rather than setting the traditional Latin text of the Requiem Mass like Verdi, or passages from the Bible like Brahms, Trumbore crafted a kind of “secular requiem,” choosing texts by Crooker and two other contemporary American poets addressing fundamental questions of life, love, and loss.
“I have moments of utter panic about my own mortality,” confessed Trumbore, “and I know many other people do as well, although we may not openly discuss or address our fears about death. Taken together, the seven poems of ‘How to Go On’ recognize these fears while also cultivating a feeling of everything ultimately being at peace. Hopefully the music adds to that visceral feeling of reassurance. “
New Jersey native Dale Trumbore studied with the great choral composer Morten Lauridsen at the University of Southern California and her own vocal works are noted for what The New York Times described as her “soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Dale Trumbore (b. 1987) How to Go On Choral Arts Initiative; Brandon Elliott, cond. CAI 2017
On This Day
Births
1858 - Belgian composer, violinist and conductor Eugène Ysaÿe, in Liège
1901 - Austrian conductor and composer Fritz Mahler, a nephew of Gustav Mahler, in Vienna; He studied composition with Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern; He emigrated to America in 1936, where he taught at the Juilliard Summer School and conducted the Erie Philharmonic and the Hartford Symphony
1904 - Italian composer Goffredo Petrassi, in Zagarolo (near Rome
1941 - English composer Geoffrey Burgon, in Hambleton, Hampshire
1959 - Scottish composer James MacMillan, in Kilwinning, Ayrshire
Deaths
1729 - Burial date of German composer and lawyer Johann David Heinichen, age 46, in Dresden
1763 - French flutist and composer Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, age 89, in Paris
Premieres
1782 - Mozart: opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio," in Vienna at the Burgtheater
1998 - Carol Barnett: "Meeting at Seneca Falls," for soloists, narrator, and chamber ensemble, at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, with Apo Hsu conducting
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.
